Madras High Court clears decks for evicting St. Peter’s Matriculation School in St. Thomas Mount

The Madras High Court on Friday cleared the decks for eviction of St. Peter’s Matriculation Higher Secondary School from 2.14 acres of government land on Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road in St. Thomas Mount, Chennai after finding it had been resisting eviction for some decades.

Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan dismissed a writ petition filed by the school management challenging the State government’s June 10, 2025 refusal to stop the eviction proceedings and instead, assign the entire government land, located in a cantonment area, in favour of the school.

The judges recorded the submission of advocate Chevanan Mohan, representing the Cantonment Board, that the land in question vests with the State government and therefore, the latter was fully entitled to invoke the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act of 1905 to evict the unauthorised occupants.

On perusing the records, the judges found the East India Company had leased out the land first in 1802 in favour of Krishnaswamy Chetty and Govindarajulu Chetty for a term of 50 years. The lease was extended twice for an equal number of years and it finally come to an end in 1952.

During the existence of the lease period, the legal heirs of the lessee had transferred their leasehold rights to Saiyid Gul Mohammed Yarya Karim Suhrawardy alias Hilal Karim for ₹ 6,500 through a deed executed on April 2, 1932. Therefore, in 1952, the government extended the lease in favour of that individual.

The extension was granted for a period of 30 years subject to payment of annual premium of ₹1,027.80 and also subject to the provisions of the Cantonment (Housing Accommodation) Act, 1923. This lease had expired on October 31, 1982 but before that, the property had been given on sub lease to Dr. Ms. Cornelius.

The government also found that the lessee had violated the lease conditions which clearly stated the property must be used only for a dwelling house and not for purposes such as running a hospital, hotel, bank, shop or school without the previous sanction of the Officer commanding the Division.

A Government Order was issued on April 28, 1977 for resumption of the land. However, multiple litigations ensued immediately thereafter and the eviction proceedings got delayed because of the stay orders granted by the courts and the time taken by the State to get those orders vacated.

Finally, now the government put its foot down and refused to part with the property to the school on the ground that it was required for construction of government offices and hence the latest writ petition.